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After missing a dozen games with an ankle injury, Hawks forward and all-around fantasy stud Josh Smith will be back in uniform for tonight’s game against Memphis. Though, if you have him on your roster and have other options given all of tonight’s games, you may want to think twice about starting him.

“That’s the big emphasis right now is to try not to overdo it because I’m so excited to be back,” Smith said. “That’s just a part of listening to your body and knowing how many minutes your body can take the first night back. And I won’t lie, my body will have to tell me because in my mind, I want it all back right now.”

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I apologize, Luc Richard. I could not find a decent photo of you in your NBA uniform. But you, Mr. Mbah a Moute, have been kicking enough boute lately to be one of the hottest pick-ups in leagues. Props for that.

Here are recent add/drop transactions in two leagues I participate in (the 12- and 14-team leagues), and one my friends play in (a 10-team league). Hopefully by looking at different sized leagues, there are some moves you can look at regardless of what size league you play in.

Dropping Dimes is trying out a new feature. Fantasy 30 intends to rank all of the NBA teams in terms of fantasy power. A list like this tends to lead to a lot of disagreement and discussion, but the hope is that these rankings will be fluid and updated as the year goes on. Thanks to Ron Chow for the assist. In addition to publishing updates on the Fantasy 30, once in a while we hope to produce sister articles that focus on a specific team and its roster.

#1: Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant ranks as a top four fantasy player this year. The Lakers employ two fantasy-worthy starters for center in Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Lamar Odom has played well coming off the bench. Jordan Farmar has sleeper point guard potential, and the team also employs three-point threats like Derek Fisher and Vlad Radmanovic. All of this adds up to the Lakers being top dog early in the year.

I am not much of a gambler. I may occasionally buy a lottery ticket if it is a large jackpot. I do not even participate in the weekly office football pool. I even bring an umbrella to work even though the forecast predicts only a 20% chance of rain. I just do not like leaving things to chance.

However, I will bet that Gerald Wallace will miss some games this year?! With a nickname like “Crash”, you are bound to miss some games. Looking back at his four years with Charlotte, he has missed 69 games. That translates into an average of 17 games per season.

Gerald Wallace is a high risk/high reward player whose name might be staring at you in the early rounds of your fantasy draft. Have a peep and see why you should invest an early pick on Gerald Wallace despite his well-documented injury woes.

Drafting in the four spot has so far yielded a top flight center Amare Stoudemire and Rashard Lewis, a SF/PF-eligible player who can fill it up from outside while strengthening the percentages. Options in the third round are to either add a point guard, or find another PF-eligible player who can score, rebound, and hit the trey. Teamed with ‘Shard, this player helps make this fantasy team’s forward spots a tough check when it comes to moneyballs.

For any newbies to our mock draft, please refer to our master list which provides you with links to all the picks thus far.

This team has gone with the superb athletes so far: LeBron James and Josh Smith. It looks like the executive board for this team has opted to add to the high octane offense instead of addressing positional issues. The point guard and center spots will have to wait.

I need to admit something; I have a serious man-crush on Josh Smith. I do not mean the stalking or restraining order type of crush. It is a crush on Josh Smith’s stat-stuffing ways and what he can contribute to one’s fantasy b-ball team, especially in blocks.

I remember the fascination began in his rookie season. It was a cold December day and during my daily routine of reviewing basketball box scores, there was a game between Atlanta and Detroit and Josh Smith had four blocks. I remember reviewing his game logs prior to the Detroit game and noticed that he had registered at least a block in the four games and back then he was SG/SF-eligible which was an added bonus. I plucked Smith off the waiver wire and plugged him into the lineup. Later in the month, Josh Smith registered 10 blocks in a game at Dallas!! I guarantee Josh Smith was claimed off every waiver wire after the Dallas game. J-Smoove single-handled won the blocks category during my H2H match-up that week!

I was able to draft him in the following season and since then Josh Smith has eluded my fantasy team. This year might be the year that I will re-ignite the man-crush with Josh Smith. Have a peep and see why you should share my man-crush with J-Smoove.

Have you heard about the notion that in life, the chance of something happening is always 50%? If you flip a coin, it will either land on hands or it won’t. Forget the one in six chance taught to you in Grade 4 when considering the odds of a die landing on three. It either lands on three or it doesn’t…50%!

Now before you start applying this simple yet philosophical math to the roulette table, please stop and let me be clear in that I bring this up all for the sake of an attempt at setting up a punchline.

Winning in fantasy hoops? Either Dwight Howard will be on your team this year or he will not. Either you will win with Dwight Howard or you will not. 50%...kind of like his free throw percentage. What about your chances of kissing the rim like Dwight can? Zero. Let’s stay real.

So…how best to maximize having Amare Stoudemire on your fantasy team? As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. With arguably the best prototypical fantasy big man in tow (and center-eligible, at that), one option would be to choose a forward who can complement Amare’s decent shooting, but can also fill in some of the small ball stats.

Rashard Lewis is certainly a roto stud. How does he stack up in a head-to-head league?

The end of the first round presents an interesting dilemma to ponder this year. A few megastars with studly fantasy pedigrees will remain available due to their injury woes last season. Some pumped up Gilbert Arenas as a first overall pick last year…should have listened to that voice in your head that actually believes in that video game cover jinx.

“High risk, high reward.” That phrase gets uttered a lot in my main league whenever someone gambles and rolls the dice. So does betting on Gilbert this year mean snake eyes or that lucky number seven? Because you’d hate to crap out on entire year with your first pick.